The Office Forked Out $250k to Film This One-Minute Scene, And It Was Totally Worth It

The Office, which ended in 2013, remains a fan favorite to this day and is one of the most watched non-original shows on Netflix.

The iconic scene of the show is when John Krasinski 's character, Jim Halpert, proposes to Pam Beesly, played by Jenna Fischer.

And according to the latter, it is the most expensive one in the whole project.

Jim's proposal to Pam, which opened the fifth season, cost the show's creators $250,000, even though the scene lasted only 52 seconds.

For it, the show's team built a gas station and a highway, and also used special effects to hide the geographical features of the real location.

The Office's production design team built an entire gas station in the parking lot of a convenience store.

To create the illusion that the location was on a busy highway, a four-lane loop road was built nearby, with cars constantly moving at about 100 mph.

In addition, the producers had to budget for special effects. They needed to remove the California mountains from the frame and to paint the trees characteristic of the East Coast.

"He [Greg Daniels, showrunner] said that he really wanted Jim's proposal to Pam to be in the season premiere. He thought, number one — that would be unexpected.

You usually end seasons with proposals. He said he also wanted to throw people off by having it in a very ordinary location. So, he wanted [it] to feel special," Jenna Fischer said in her interview with Entertainment Weekly.

The production of The Office quickly stopped being low-budget. The show rapidly became popular and the costs increased.

Naturally, the actors' salaries took up the lion's share of the expenses. Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott, had reportedly earned around $300,000 per episode in later seasons.

The showrunners have also rented a building in California, which has been completely converted into an office, and have paid a considerable amount of money for it.